We made a video and called it Mr. Love

Mobile Responsive feature is a BIG deal for Unbounce. It’s a feature that was requested the most by our customers for a long time, and we wanted to make sure that when it launches, everyone would be pumped up about it.

So we decided to make a video with the launch.

As a Customer Success Videographer for Unbounce, I was never given a set deadline. Usually the key stakeholders give me a lot of breathing room to create a polished final video. But Mobile Responsive Launch had a set campaign dates, which meant I absolutely needed to finish the video before the launch. So to save time, I decided to outline my process and stick with it no matter what.

This was the process for Mobile Responsive Launch Video. (MRLV for short. Ryan calls it Mr. Love)

Brief

Each project needs a creative brief that outlines the goal. The goal of Mobile Responsive Launch Video (Mr. Love) was to celebrate the launch of the feature while showing them a little taste of what it looks like in our builder app.

Rough deadline was set. The project began in mid-October and we set the final deadline as November 14th, and many checkpoints in between. The actual launch was to happen on November 18th, and we wanted to make sure the video was complete by then.

Concept & Brainstorming

Ideas are discussed on how to tackle the brief. What is the message and how is it going to be delivered? Are focusing on delighting our customers or providing them with helpful information? How much room is there to play around with the concept. I daresay this is the most crucial part of the process, as it is very important to be able to visualize (in my head) how the end product is going to look like. If the end product isn’t clearly visualized and communicated with key stakeholders, a project will need to be re-shot, re-conceptualized, or even worse, entirely scrapped.

For Mr. Love, we decided to be transparent about the fact so many customers have been requesting the mobile responsive feature for a long time. And also decided to delight our customers by actually carrying out a request from one of our customers.

Scripting

Once concepting is done and story structure has been decided, a script with dialogue and detailed action sequences is written. The videos are usually short in length (1~2minutes) so the message needs to be clear and on-point. It is very important to carefully craft each line of dialogue to effectively deliver the message without boring the customers. Lots of revisions happen until all key stakeholders are satisfied with the lines delivered. This is where I decide which lines would need live action footages, animations, screen casts, or B-roll footages.

Storyboarding

Once script is ready, I create a storyboard to roughly visualize the end product. Not only does a storyboard help me visually communicate the script, but it also helps me to lock down shots choices.

For Mr. Love which didn’t involve complicated blocking, I decided to use visual reference instead of sketching out a storyboard to better communicate the look and feel of the end product.

Prep

Preparation can happen while script and storyboarding is underway. A few things that need to be locked down before actual production are:

Casting: Because videos aim to delight our customers by being transparent about our culture, all castings are done with Unbounce staff.

Location: Just like casting, we try to show off as much of our office as possible.

Props

Rehearsal dates

Shoot dates

We wanted to show lots of people working from various teams in Unbounce, to show that we are real people who care about our customers and our product.

Shoot

We have a designated video studio to shoot footages. For delivering messages, we use a simple backdrop and a speaker for clear communications.

Carl, our CTO, was a great fit for the shoot. His delivery was clear, and his reaction to the confetti cannon (which caught him off guard) was top notch.

Edit

Once the production is done, I review the footages and select the shots I would like to use. Then I cut the parts I need and arrange them together in Adobe Premiere Pro. I always edit with the timing and pace of the video in mind, so each cut choice prioritizes the dialogue over the video. Of course both the audio and the visuals are crucial for an effective video. But the audience never forgives bad audio.

Music also plays a crucial role in video. For Mr. Love, I wanted to keep it upbeat and exciting without overpowering Carl’s delivery.

Color

This part of the post production is where I make sure the footages have nice color and atmosphere. With correct grading, the images are going to look sharper and more vibrant, making the video more captivating.

Audio

Once again, audience never forgives bad audio. So I make sure the levels of all the lines are well balanced. I also pull out or add in ambient noises depending on the quality of the audio.

The quality of the audio for Mr. Love was very good. I only needed to balance out audio level between each speakers.

Animate

Animation is a very effective tool to deliver messages that are harder to visualize with live action footages. To save time, I discuss the animation with the creative team even before editing begins. With the designers, I decide how certain lines should be illustrated and animated, and provide them a mini brief.

Once the designers send me the illustrations, I separate the elements that need to be animated and load them on to After effects, where I build the scene and animate.

Mr. Love only required a very simple animation. The assets were created by the Creative Team (Thank you Alejandra & Ceci).

Finalize

Once the final review and revisions are done, the video is good to be deployed. We use Wistia to upload our videos and depending on the project, how we place those videos in the campaign can vary.